QUETTA: Jailed activist Mahrang Baloch, a leading campaigner for Pakistan’s Baloch minority, has ended a hunger strike after a court asked authorities to justify her detention, her lawyer told AFP on Tuesday.
Mahrang Baloch, 32, was arrested last month on charges of terrorism, sedition and murder.
Security forces are battling a growing insurgency in her native Balochistan, an impoverished province that borders Afghanistan and Iran.
Rights groups say the violence has been countered with a severe crackdown that has swept up innocent people.
Mahrang and four other detained activists from her organization, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), had stopped eating on Thursday in protest against alleged misconduct by police and ill-treatment the activists claim to have been subjected to in detention.
The judiciary has declined to rule on Mahrang’s detention for more than a month, effectively halting any appeal and placing the matter solely in the hands of the provincial government.
But the Balochistan High Court agreed on Monday to consider an application to overturn her administrative detention, her lawyer Imran Baloch told AFP. Mahrang’s detention was renewed for a second month a week ago.
“Petition got admitted by high court and notices were issued to government,” the lawyer said, adding that a hearing was scheduled for Wednesday.
Mahrang and the other activists agreed to end their hunger strike after meeting with her family and lawyers on Monday, Imran Baloch said.
A group of 13 UN human rights experts expressed concern on Tuesday over the detention of BYC leaders and their supporters.
“Pakistan appears to conflate legitimate human and minority rights advocacy and public demonstrations with terrorism, threatening freedoms of expression, assembly, and association,” the independent experts, who are appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, said in a statement.
They also noted the ban on several Baloch activists from leaving the country, which includes Mahrang.
A dozen UN experts called on Pakistan last month to immediately release Baloch rights advocates, including Mahrang, and to end the repression of their peaceful protests.
For two decades, members of the Baloch minority have denounced extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and arbitrary arrests in Balochistan — Pakistan’s most resource-rich province, where 70 percent of inhabitants are poor.
Pakistani authorities say the accusations are unfounded.
Insurgents in Balochistan accuse outsiders of plundering the province’s natural resources and launched a dramatic train siege in March, during which officials said about 60 people were killed.
Detained Pakistan rights activist ends hunger strike
https://arab.news/w3725
Detained Pakistan rights activist ends hunger strike
- Mahrang Baloch, 32, was arrested last month on charges of terrorism, sedition and murder
- The judiciary has declined to rule on Baloch’s detention for over a month, halting any appeal
Pakistan to launch 5G pilot in some cities next week — IT minister
- Government says 5G services to reach provincial and federal capitals within six to eight months
- Rollout follows $507 million spectrum auction aimed at expanding mobile broadband capacity
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will begin pilot launches of fifth-generation (5G) mobile services in some cities next week, Information Technology Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja said on Thursday, marking the country’s first concrete timeline for introducing the next generation of high-speed mobile Internet.
The announcement follows a spectrum auction earlier this week in which Pakistan sold 480 megahertz (MHz) of telecom frequencies for about $507 million, a key step toward deploying 5G networks in a country of more than 240 million people where most mobile infrastructure still runs on fourth-generation (4G) technology.
Pakistan has more than 190 million mobile phone users, making it one of the world’s largest telecom markets by population, but the rollout of 5G has been delayed for years by regulatory hurdles, economic constraints and spectrum-allocation issues.
“I was very happy to hear the day before yesterday that some of our operators are ready for 5G services,” Khawaja told a news conference with telecom operators in Islamabad.
“So, its pilot will start in some cities next week. And in the next six to eight months, in five of our capitals of all provinces and in the federal capital, 5G services will be available to all of you people.”
Khawaja described Internet connectivity as increasingly critical for economic activity, industry and national security, saying reliable and resilient digital infrastructure would play a central role in Pakistan’s future growth.
Officials have said the government is also encouraging wider adoption of 5G-compatible devices to support the transition to faster mobile networks, noting that a large share of phones used in Pakistan are locally manufactured while premium models are imported.
